Falling Leaves

"This time of year is always bittersweet. The vibrant colors of the leaves, boldly leaping out into the landscape, filling me with energy and life!  . . . will soon give way to the naked branches, fading into the background of the long, dark, winter days."
                                                                                       ~ Leslie Morrissette

Wednesday, I spent four hours blowing and raking,
                              filling twenty bags of leaves, from my yard. 

The next day, I could barely MOVE.         

Saturday, my boys were sentenced to yard work for bad behavior.

They did a great job mowing . . .  and raking . . .  and blowing.   

Later on, as I was trimming the bushes, I glanced up at the trees.

Half of them were still full of leaves.

Look at them TAUNTING me, I thought.

Like mischievous teenagers, waiting for darkness to settle,
     before gleefully dressing some unknowing person's yard with rolls of paper,
they cannot WAIT to shed their leaves, like confetti, all over my yard.

The next morning, the yard was covered in "confetti".


"Nature is, above all, profligate. 
Don't believe them when they tell you how
economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place?"

                                                                                            ~ Annie Dillard